874.00/4–2745: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:40 p.m.]
232. The Communist campaign against G. M. Dimitrov and all Agrarian elements that support him is continuing. Dimitrov has now been placed under house arrest and political orators and the press denounce him almost daily, alleging Fascist tendencies. These articles and speeches sometimes contain only slightly veiled reference to one of the basic reasons for Communist determination to eliminate him, namely his pro-British (one might even say pro-Anglo-Saxon) tendencies. Petkov, who a few months ago replaced him as secretary of the Agrarian party, was asked recently by the Communist Regent Pavlov to give in to Communist Party pressure and publicly attack Dimitrov. Petkov replied that, if necessary in the interest of preserving the FF, he would comply but that he could base his attack only on Dimitrov’s faith in Anglo-Saxon democracy. Pavlov of course would not consent to this.
Repeated to AmPolAd as 115 and to Moscow as 105.